'Parenthood' Season 5 potential: NBC 'incredibly excited' about current ratings and stories

Share this:

Like its predecessor “Friday Night Lights,” NBC’s “Parenthood” is always an on-the-bubble show — each spring, we wait with bated breath to find out whether it will be renewed for another year. After middling Season 3 ratings, Season 4 was only picked up for an abbreviated 15 episodes. However, with fresh new storylines, particularly Kristina’s breast cancer and a young veteran’s return home, “Parenthood’s” audience has been growing.

At Sunday’s NBC Television Critics Association press day, NBC President of Entertainment Jennifer Salke said that no decision has been made yet about a potential Season 5, but the network is happy with the upward trend of Season 4.

“We’re feeling really great about [its performance],” Salke explains. “We haven’t determined its future, but I’d be crazy to tell you that we didn’t feel incredibly excited about where the show is creatively and the way the current storylines are kind of capturing a bigger audience. So we feel really good about it.”

Salke and NBC President Robert Greenblatt also touted “Parenthood” as a sort of “tonic” or antidote to the violence and scandal in the media, and they noted that they are looking at developing more family dramas in the coming seasons — which would imply that they do have plans to continue with the series. “I think those are just conversations in the coming weeks that we haven’t had a chance to actually sit down and focus on,” Salke says. “But I’m feeling very good about the show.”